Monday Night Stuffed Peppers

Monday night I went to the grocery store under somewhat unfavorable conditions for a thrifty shopping experience. I had just finished a work-out at the gym, I was hungry and Mike wasn’t with me. I was defenseless against the allure of leafy greens, the tantalizing sheen of firm eggplants, and the seductive piles of almost eighty dollars worth of produce. Never mind the fact that we’ll be leaving for New Jersey within the week for winter vacation. I wanted that veg!
One of the results of my zealous spending was Monday night’s dinner. I managed to pack in: 2 orange-yellow peppers, 2 portabella mushrooms, 2 onions, 1 cucumber, ¼ bunch of dill, 1 bunch broccoli rabe, ½ a head of cauliflower, 5 cloves of garlic and one hot pepper. How about that for eating your vegetables?
I roasted the peppers in the oven at 450˚F, turning occasionally. When they were done browning on all sides I removed them from the oven, placed them in a bowl and covered the bowl with a plate to help steam off the skin of the peppers. In a cast iron pan I pan-fried cubed onions and portabella mushrooms. When the mushrooms and onions were done I added in some left over millet/wild rice mixture that I had cooked the previous day. With a little water in the pan, everything mixed up nicely. Once everything was heated through, I added in a generous portion of chopped pine nuts as well as some chopped up dulse sea vegetable for a salty, nutritious kick. (I set aside some of this mixture for myself. I added cooked, lump crabmeat to this portion. Mike doesn’t like crab, so I made I made a separate portion with crab for me.) I peeled the skin off of the peppers, pulled out the stems with seeds and stuffed the peppers with the millet/wild rice/mushroom mixture. I then pan-fried the peppers in the cast iron pan with a little sesame oil with the cover on the pan.
The cucumber salad was easier to prepare. I peeled a large cucumber, sliced it into thin rounds and added about ¼ of a small onion which was thinly sliced. Finally I added some finely chopped fresh dill and dressed with brown rice vinegar and a large pinch of sea salt.

I sautéed about ½ of a small head of cauliflower in olive oil until it began to brown. I then added some diced garlic and diced hot pepper. Finally I added a bunch of broccoli rabe, drizzled in some water and covered to cook. I intermittently stirred the vegetable mixture and added more water as needed. When the broccoli rabe was cooked through I removed the mixture from the stove. I left the heat on the burner and added some balsamic vinegar to the hot pan and reduced the vinegar, added a little water, and reduced again. I poured this liquid over the vegetables.
This was a tasty meal.